Control over Utilities, Dialogue with Business: Mayor of Brovary on Community Problems and Difficult Solutions (video)

A morning tour of the community territory, control over the work of utilities and the performance of works at various facilities, meetings in the city council to promptly resolve the most important issues of the city's life, communication with business representatives - this is how a typical working day of Brovary Mayor Ihor Sapozhko usually looks like, one of which was spent with him by journalists of UNN. During the conversation with the mayor, they learned how the city continues to prepare for winter, how much the life of the settlements that joined the Brovary community after the administrative reform has changed, how the city helps IDPs, and why it is important to stimulate and support business development on the ground.

During his morning rounds, Ihor Sapozhko notices that one of the streets was not cleaned up on time. So, he says, he will have questions for the managers responsible for this area.

Such an emphasis on the work of public utilities by Ihor Sapozhko is not accidental. In the first weeks of the war, when the Russian occupiers did not give up hope of breaking through to Brovary, it was the coordinated work of the city's utilities and other services that proved that there was a government in the city and that this government was Ukrainian.

- On February 24, 2002, at about half past six in the morning, some of our managers and I were already at work. Frankly speaking, in the first few minutes we were confused and did not know what to do next. I remember that in the morning we were standing in the stairwell at the entrance to the city council, and rockets were everywhere. The sounds of explosions, rockets hitting.

We communicated with the military even before the full-scale invasion began, because we had a military unit here, so we already knew that there might be some problems. We were constantly in touch with the Kyiv Military Administration, so we had to prepare for defense. We communicated with the State Emergency Service and the police. We started organizing the work of volunteer groups and helping the military. We realized that the offensive was coming from Chernihiv, and Brovary would be one of the first major cities in the Kyiv region to be attacked by the enemy. We had meetings, conferences, and discussed all this organizationally. Then the evacuation corridors from the Brovary district began. We were organizing everything.

But the most important thing that happened in these early days was the cohesion of the community's population.

I remember March 9, 2022 - four kilometers from Brovary, a Russian tank column was being smashed, and at that time, the city's utilities were clearing snow from the streets. And the people who stayed in the city were sure that if the utilities were working, everything was fine. Everyone was in place, no panic.

There was also an incident when an acoustic bomb exploded and a water supply line was damaged somewhere. At the same time, the shelling from artillery and Grad rockets continued. A resident calls me on her cell phone and says: "We have no water in Torgmash (Brovary neighborhood - ed.), what kind of mayor are you that you can't organize water supply?" So it was really such an inspiration to people that everything is fine. Everything is working, everything is functioning.

- About the fact that everything has to function. Recently, the enemy has intensified its attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure. Residents of the Brovary community were also left without electricity. Since the fall of 2022, you have had a program of partial compensation for the purchase of independent energy sources for apartment buildings. How actively do people join this program to avoid discomfort during power outages?

- The program exists, it works. Those who wanted to join it joined it. We have mostly apartment buildings, with high floors. Even when there is no electricity in the apartment, but the water is running. You go out, take the elevator, and come down from the 20th floor.

There is one condominium association that has calculated that they need to change the power of the booster pump, and for this they need to install storage batteries. In the event of a complete power outage for six or seven hours, this pump will fully supply the entire residential building with heat and water.

A striking positive example of this program is that we have one neighborhood where, during a power outage after the August missile attack on Ukraine, the generator powered the sewage and pumping system, elevators, and even a crane at a construction site.

The main thing is the initiative of the heads of condominiums and management organizations, who, in principle, should apply to the Housing and Communal Services Department, which is the administrator of funds for the implementation of this program, for the possibility of co-financing.

Of course, I would like to see more of this initiative, because then we will receive fewer complaints. For example, if the power goes out, the elevator stops, people are riding in it, and they need to be rescued, the emergency service is called. But this way, people realize that another power source is now being turned on, and in just a few seconds the elevator will start moving again.

- As for the city's overall preparation for the heating season, there is not much time left, what else is left to do, and how would you assess the degree of readiness?

- Frankly speaking, I am not satisfied with the preparations for the heating season. There is still a lot of work to be done, to implement all the plans we have set for ourselves.

Earlier, we talked about ensuring the operation of boiler houses, but in addition to them, there are also central heating stations that run on electricity. Now our utility company has been tasked with ensuring that all these points are also connected to other power sources, either a generator or solar panels. We cannot say that we will be 100% ready for the heating season, because it is almost impossible to predict everything during military operations. But today we are talking about cogeneration units for four boiler houses. We have signed a corresponding agreement with USAID (United States Agency for International Development - ed.) and the Kyiv Regional Military Administration. These units will enable these boiler houses to be fully self-sufficient in electricity. Accordingly, this will free up a certain number of generators that we can use in other organizations.

- From preparing for winter, let's move on to preparing for the school year that has already begun. Almost 18 thousand schoolchildren sat down at their desks in the Brovarska Hromada, of whom more than 1.5 thousand are first-graders. Will the children be able to attend school in person?

- Most of the training will be offline. Online learning is possible if the child is, for example, abroad or on sick leave. These will be combined classes where lessons will be held separately.

We prepared shelters as much as possible, prepared educational institutions as much as possible so that children could study offline. And this was the main task. We pay additional attention to ensuring that displaced children study offline in the schools of our community to adapt faster. For us, all children are Ukrainian, they are our family.

- You mentioned children who are displaced. Currently, about 21 thousand internally displaced persons are registered in Brovary. How do the Brovary authorities facilitate their integration into the community? What problems do they face, and how do you help solve them?

- Yes, 21 thousand people are registered as internally displaced persons. We have a town for them, where 360 people can live.

It is clear that everyone is either looking for an opportunity to rent a house, or lives with friends or relatives, or is looking for a job here. And quite a few people have already found jobs, including in our public utilities, in medicine, in the service sector, etc. And they have already adapted here to the maximum extent possible. And it's nice when you walk down the street, meet people, and they say that two years ago they moved from Bakhmut, found an opportunity to realize themselves, and now the Brovary community is almost like home to them.

As for job assistance, if you look at our Employment Center, there are 230 vacancies and 80 people registered at the Employment Center today. That is practically three vacancies per person. There is no problem with vacancies. The main thing is desire. For those who want to find a job, it is not a problem.

- Let's move on from IDPs to people whose lives have been inextricably linked to Brovary since 2020. We are talking about the residents of the settlements of Kniazhychi, Trebukhiv and Peremozhets, which became part of the Brovary city community after the administrative reform.

- Frankly speaking, we faced a lot of problems then. For three years in a row, Trebukhiv could not adopt a budget, and the village was not developing. The problems had been accumulating for years and needed to be solved.

The first year our amalgamated community was operating, in winter I received a call from the head of the education department saying that it was 13 degrees in the school in Knyazhychi and we had to close the institution. This was nonsense to me. We started to look into it. Indeed, there was a boiler house next to the village council that lacked capacity. We had to re-equip it in a short period of time, install a boiler, and everything is working.

These are completely different communities. We have starostas there who express people's opinions, which we listen to, and also make suggestions for the development of these settlements. For example, in Trebukhiv and Knyazhychi, in addition to the primary healthcare, we have not disbanded the ambulance service - we have two vehicles assigned to us at all times. People understand that the ambulance is nearby, they can call it and take a person to the hospital.

We don't have a situation where the city lives its own life and forgets about the three villages that have joined it. They are definitely members of a single community, members of a single family, and I believe that we should develop together.

- On community unity. The story of the initiative of some members of the Verkhovna Rada to rename Brovary and Brovari made headlines all over Ukraine. Residents of the city opposed this, and there was an appeal from the city council to the parliament asking them not to submit this issue for consideration. There are conclusions from several scientific institutions of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine that renaming is inappropriate. Can it be considered a victory for the community that this story has now subsided?

- You know, if the renaming of the city of Brovary were the last problem in our country, we could discuss it for a long time and talk about what is necessary, not necessary, how it should be done, and everything else. I believe that there are state institutions (the Institute of History of Ukraine of the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of the Ukrainian Language of the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of the Cossacks of the National Academy of Sciences - ed. This is not the desire of an MP or a mayor or a citizen who applied for renaming. There are state institutions that have studied and noted that, based on cartography and historical sources, Brovary is a city. Any MP who studies the documents will understand that the community is 100% sure that the state institutions have made the right conclusions.

- Returning to the city's life. In order to maintain the communal sector, properly prepare for the heating season, repair schools and kindergartens and solve many other urgent issues, funds are needed. How do you manage to fill the community budget in such difficult conditions?

- Business pays taxes. If the business is satisfied, the city receives enough money. Our main task is not to interfere, but to help and support. 55% of the budget consists of personal income tax. And the most important thing here is that there is no shadow business. I am very pleased that Brovary has small and medium-sized businesses. We are talking about manufacturing, services, and so on. We have had a Board of Directors of enterprises in the city for quite some time. I am pleased to work with our leaders, who are always sympathetic to any given situation. They understand that the living conditions of their employees in our community depend on the amount of taxes they pay. We say that if there are taxes, some work will be done. This is a vicious cycle that should work in any community. We are saying that the task of business is to work honestly and openly in the white, and our task is to organize that these employees who work directly at our enterprises feel directly that the taxes they pay are used for our community development.

To make sure that Ihor Sapozhko was right, UNN journalists visited two enterprises that can be called business cards not only for Brovary, but for the whole of Ukraine.

In particular, Politekhnoservice manufactures trolleybuses and develops the latest electronic systems for urban transport management.

According to Yuriy Bombanyorov, one of the company's co-founders, they can also manufacture electric buses and tram traction drives. Among the company's developments are tramcars with a low floor and fully swivel bogies.

The co-founder of the company notes that the working conditions in Brovary are much better than in Kyiv. This is due to the payment for land, other utility bills, the influence of local authorities on various processes, and the positive attitude of the residents - all of which create comfortable conditions for the domestic manufacturer.

Another domestic manufacturer representing Brovary is TDS Ukrspetstechnika . It specializes in the production of, among other things, mini and front-end loaders, backhoe loaders, motor graders, etc.

Despite the challenging economic situation, the company has managed to maintain its position in the Ukrainian market and plans to fully enter the EU market. After all, the company's products are in no way inferior to their Western counterparts, and at the same time, they are half the price.

Mikolay Dedov, CEO of TDS Ukrspetstechnika, positively assesses the activities of the Brovary Board of Directors, as it provides an opportunity to discuss business issues directly with the mayor. According to him, Brovary is perhaps the only city in Ukraine where such a Council was established on the initiative of the city authorities.

According to Ihor Sapozhko, the fact that the authorities in Brovary have been supporting entrepreneurs for years is yielding important and tangible results right now.

- As a local government body, we have done our best to promote the development of small and medium-sized businesses in our community, which, in principle, provides a stable situation and revenues to the local budget. Today, we have a lot of industries that manufacture their products and sell them not only throughout Ukraine but also abroad.